Winemaker's roots deep

The owner and winemaker of Viñedos Aurora, one of newest wineries in the thriving boutique wine scene in Lodi, is Gerardo Espinosa.

Reed Fujii

The owner and winemaker of Viñedos Aurora, one of newest wineries in the thriving boutique wine scene in Lodi, is Gerardo Espinosa.

He's crafted three unusual varietal wines, a petite sirah, a red blend called Sínthesis and a dry white Albariño.

The bottles are wrapped by a striking label, a latticework of trellis-trained grapevines silhouetted against a metallic gold morning sun, perhaps reflecting his design sense as a project manager at WMB Architects in Stockton.

But take a closer look, and you might also see the reflection of Espinosa's grandparents, Victor Anaya Sr., who began building his family's fortunes in 1944, coming to work the farm fields outside Stockton under the Bracero program, and Aurora Anaya, a nurse who worked and raised their children in the state of Michoacán, Mexico.

The Anayas came from a very small town, Espinosa said.

"It's a town that during the growing season in the United States, even now, all the men come to the United States," he said.

But Victor Anaya Sr. aspired to better things. His earnings from the fields in California went to college tuition for his children.

"He paid for all my uncles (Victor Jr., Ramon, Armando and Gerardo) and my mom (Leticia) to have an education at the University of Michoacán," Espinosa said.

And the elder Anaya also helped support his family's gradual move to California, underwriting the purchase of a grocery store in Lodi in 1988, initially run by two uncles and called, naturally, Dos Hermanos.

"He wanted to give them a better life," Espinosa said.

Indeed the family has found that life, opening other retail shops and businesses. At one point, they operated three restaurants; now just one, Taco Real in Galt. And the four Anaya brothers, who earned degrees in agricultural engineering, purchased a 40-acre plot in the Clements Hills area east of Lodi, where they planted cabernet sauvignon and petite sirah grapes.

Espinosa, a 1998 graduate of Tokay High School who studied architecture at San Joaquin Delta College and Cosumnes River College, got involved when his uncles began using a small portion of their crop to make their own wine.

"It was (through) the family that I started getting really interested in it," he said.

He learned the craft of winemaking from friends, talking to area winemakers and joining the Lodi Amateur Vintners Association. Then he decided to step it up a notch.

"I wanted to go further," he said. "My interest was to make my own brand."

To do so, he turned to Estate Crush, a custom winery in downtown Lodi that provides a full range of production services.

Bob Colarossi, managing partner of Estate Crush, whose tasting room offers a number of his clients' vintages, said Viñedos Aurora has been very well-received by consumers.

Sales are building. From an initial bottling of 250 cases in 2009, Espinosa hopes to produce about 1,000 cases this fall.

But while "winemaking is easy," Espinosa said building a commercial wine brand is not. "It's just been a lot of work."

Besides Estate Crush, Viñedos Aurora is available at the Lodi Wine and Visitors Center, Fiori's Butcher Shoppe and Deli, Yume, a Japanese restaurant, and Alebrijes Mexican Bistro, all in Lodi. Papapavlo's Bistro in Stockton is due to begin offering his wine in April, Espinosa said.

There is something familiar and something new in the story of Viñedos Aurora, said Stuart Spencer, program manager of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission.

That a family that first came to the area to work the fields was followed by a generation that planted the vineyard and now comes a generation that is starting a winery is really "a great American success story," he said.

But he could think of no other family in the area wine industry that traces its roots back to Mexico.

"I don't know every vintner's story here in Lodi," Spencer said. But "his story is unique, as far as I know."

Another familiar thread is that many of Lodi's boutique wineries that have sprung up in the past 15 years were launched by longtime area grape growers who saw a need and an opportunity to capture more value from their crop by producing their own wine.

What's different is that Espinosa himself is not a farmer but an architectural project manager, Spencer said.

"It's somewhat reflective of the dynamism that's evolving in the Lodi appellation now," he said.

"It's great to see people like (Espinosa) him coming to this business and bringing a bigger and more rounded experience."